Rock Star

B2 has taken to lately wanting a star put over his right eye (like applied with lipstick or a washable marker), which he calls his "Rock Star." It's a bargaining chip lately, like I get him to eat for the promise of him getting to sport his Rock Star. B2's gone glam on me! He also makes the devil sign and says "Rock-n-rollllllll!"

B2, Rock Star.

St. Andy of Warhol

"Art is whatever you can get away with."

-- Andy Warhol

The icy audacity of Andy Warhol has fascinated me since I was first aware of the wider world. Maybe that he came from Pittsburgh was part of it, that Rust Belt sense of parochialism, but his overall approach to art intrigued me. His cold and clinical persona ("Drella") and position as a true innovator in the twilight of America's cultural golden age holds great interest to me. He always seemed profoundly a master of the game, with that mystique around him and even in areas where he wasn't particularly skillful (film making, hello?) his aura ensured that it would at least generate interest.

I think a lot of cold souls are drawn to Warhol, for that sense of coolness and scenesterism, whereas what always drew me was that seditious approach to art that he had, to find the extraordinary in the mundane, or the mundane in the exceptional, and his ability to square the circle and seemingly mass-produce innovative and striking techniques. Acutely self-aware, he seemed to have created a sphinxlike aura about himself, too. He'd just turn up in odd places, following his fancy, and I liked that.

The kind of cult of personality Warhol seemed able to do so easily is something far beyond me -- I'm far too open a person, far too prone to being burned by that openness, so I'm more feast-or-famine where people are concerned, whereas Warhol just glided through his life aware of it as a performance, and he was a master performer, with the whole world as his audience. I paid attention to him as a study of someone altogether alien from me, but inspiring, too.

Pesticide

This is an interesting study, linking ADHD to pesticide use. I'm sure the agriculture and pesticide industries will quickly mount counterstudies showing the health effects of pesticides or something. But it's curious, just the same.